Malaysian and Singaporean chinese are like that - competitive. Ultra competitive.
I have no desire to compete, nor do I have desire to keep up with the Joneses.
I used to think that these close friends of ours, in UK, he's South American with tinges of italian and french and wife is bulgarian. She is same age as me but he is older, not much, enough.
My husband and I used to marvel at how much they must be earning, until I accidentally stumbled on something. It was rather simple - he asked me for my Morrison's petrol receipt bill. And some other bits and bobs too. Like wife was supposed to have gone back to work fulltime but instead in Venice/Paris.
Told my other half that he was fiddling, sure enough a few years back, internal audit looked into their mobile phone bills.
I guess what I am trying to say, this isn't predominantly a chinese phomenon, exists elsewhere too. Chinese- educated or not, exposed to Western education, travel etc are just as competitive and just as materialistic
